Approved Species Gibbospinea bilateralis

[Jack Sandrow]

A typical gutkurr with late-stage infection. False color added for emphasis.

OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION

• Intent: To add to the ecology of Ryloth
• Image Credit: Image is a Gutkurr of Ryloth, the profile drawn by Patton1836 on DeviantArt. Crappy MSPaint job by me
• Canon: N/A
• Permissions: N/A
• Links: Gutkurr (Wookieepedia), Ryloth (Wookieepedia), Ophiocordyceps unilateralis (Wikipedia)

GENERAL INFORMATION

• Name: Gibbospinea bilateralis, known informally as 'Gutkurr madness'
• Origins: Ryloth
• Other Locations: No
• Classification: Parasitic fungus
• Average Growth Cycle: 10 days to fully infect, 4 days for the fruiting bodies to form, and remains active in the corpse until all nutrient sources have been depleted, usually 30-90 days.
• Viability: Requires air currents to transmit from host to host, and is only physically viable on gutkurr bodies
• Description: While it propagates under the armor of a gutkurr, it is invisible to the naked eye. Once it begins to fruit, five visible fruiting bodies form on the carapace (1 on the spine, 2 on each side by the thigh and armpit). A thick mycelium armor plating forms on the dome, partially inhibiting sight and increasing durability and survivability for a charging gutkurr's cranium. Gutkurrs who exhibit fruiting bodies are invariably more aggressive and predatory, and incite more dominance displays such as charging and roaring.

PHYSICAL INFORMATION

• Average Height:
  • Spores - 20-100 μm
  • Fruiting bodies (green) - 14-20 cm
  • Phylum (blue) - 0.5-0.9 m
  • Mycelium 'armor' (purple) - 0.4-0.5 m, about 8-10 cm thick
• Average Length:
  • Spores - 5-8 μm
  • Fruiting bodies (green) - 10-12 cm
  • Phylum (blue) - 3-4 cm thick
  • Mycelium 'armor' (purple) - 0.2-0.4 m across
• Color: Almost identical to the gutkurr's natural exoskeleton. The phylum may exhibit a darker brown pigmentation.
• Nutritional Value: None
• Toxicity: None (gutkurr are the sole infected species)
• Other Effects: None
• Distinctions: This fungus is itself preyed on by an as-of-yet-unknown parasite in turn, dubbed the 'anti-gutkurr-fungus killer' (AGFK). This has unfortunately only increased G. bilateralis' infection rates, and in the wild there can be massive 'deadfalls' of gutkurr corpses strewn about a fully infected colony.

Strengths:

• Large additional armor plating on the gutkurr's forehead increases the host's survivability, providing a longer time to germinate and fruit in the host's body.
• Massive and lengthy fruiting bodies are stimulated by rapid velocity changes (charging gutkurr colliding), which serves to increase the sporating bodies' release functions. In essence, the more often the gutkurr charges, the more the spores spread.
• Rapid germination once full infection takes hold. If the gutkurr host can survive to full fruition, it will invariably begin to spread its spores.

Weaknesses:

• The fungus itself has no form of defense other than massive and prolific production, which itself is hampered by its own parasitic killer (AGFK).
• Aggressive gutkurrs are far more likely to be culled in populated environs, leading to fungal populations only existing in rare, rural areas.
• The fungus has a distinctive odor to other gutkurrs - if a population is still healthy enough, then uninfected members will gang up on an infected host to quickly kill it and then remove its body from the nest.
• The fungus cannot survive in extreme temperatures - excessive heat and cold will quickly kill it. This limits its spread on Ryloth to the habitable ring.

HISTORICAL INFORMATION
A rare sight to see these days, owing to gutkurr populations becoming increasingly cultivated, this fungal parasite is still present in some rare instances across the habitable ring of Ryloth. If a large enough portion of a colony of gutkurr has been visibly infected ( >10%), it is safe to say that the colony as a whole has been lost, as the germination of the spore can occur even before any visible symptoms appear. A lot of information regarding the fungus is unknown, both due to Ryloth farmers' extreme prejudice in protecting their colonies and due to the AGFK quietly culling the species from the other end. What is known is vaguely similar to other parasitic fungal species across the galaxy, with its own uniqueness due in no small part to the fungus' exclusivity for the gutkurr species.

 

[Aveline Cuiléin]

APPROVED